Milestone Asset Resolution Company, the California firm that took over the deed to much of the Amberly development in Cary last week, actually purchased the loans on the property last summer.

The assets were sold to Milestone on June 4, 2010 as part of a $1.4 billion loan sale between the Federal Deposit Insurance and Barclays, said Greg Hernandez, a spokesman for the FDIC in Washington.

Earlier this week, an official with Milestone declined to comment on the Amberly property's future.

The deed to much of the 1,100-acre community in northwest Cary was transferred to Milestone last week in a transaction valued at $19.2 million.

L.M. Sandler & Sons of Virginia Beach, Va., transferred the deed to avoid foreclosure, according to Wake County property records.

Sandler's lender on the portion of the project, Cleveland-based AmTrust Bank, collapsed in late 2009, and the assets were taken over by the FDIC.